Marion, city, seat (1831) of Grant county, north-central Indiana, U.S., on the Mississinewa River, 67 miles (108 km) northeast of Indianapolis. Settled in 1826, it was named for General Francis Marion of the American Revolutionary War. It developed as an agricultural town, but local oil and gas

Marion, city, seat (1824) of Marion county, north central Ohio, U.S., approximately 45 miles (70 km) north of Columbus. Laid out about 1820, it was first called Jacob’s Well (for Jacob Foos, who dug for water there). Renamed in 1822 for Gen. Francis Marion of American Revolutionary War fame, it was

Marion, city, seat (1822) of Perry county, west-central Alabama, U.S. It is situated near the Cahaba River, about midway between Tuscaloosa (northwest) and Montgomery (southeast). Settled in 1817, it was known as Muckle’s Ridge until it was renamed to honour Francis Marion, a soldier in the

Cyprus: Greek immigration: Cyprus: Curium (Greek: Kourion), Paphos, Marion, Soli (Greek: Soloi), Lapithos, and Salamis. About 800 bce a Phoenician colony was founded at Citium (Greek: Kition), near modern Larnaca, as a dependency of the mother city, Tyre. A seventh kingdom,

Marion, county, eastern South Carolina, U.S. It is situated between the Little and Great Pee Dee rivers to the east and west, respectively; the rivers join at the county’s southern tip. The county lies within the Coastal Plain and features generally flat terrain. Prior to European settlement the

Victor Hugo: Success (1830–51): …stage performance of his play Marion de Lorme (1829), which portrays the character of Louis XIII unfavourably. Hugo immediately retorted with Hernani, the first performance of which, on February 25, 1830, gained victory for the young Romantics over the Classicists in what came to be known as the battle of…

Marion Island, one of the two Prince Edward Islands in the southern Indian Ocean, about 1,190 miles (1,920 km) southeast of Cape Town. In 1947 South Africa proclaimed sovereignty of the islands and established a meteorological station on Marion Island in 1948. The islands are otherwise uninhabited.

Frances Marion was an American motion picture screenwriter whose 25-year career spanned the silent and sound eras. As a young adult, Marion had twice married and divorced and had tried her hand as a journalist, model, and illustrator before going to Hollywood in 1913. She worked with director Lois

Francis Marion was a colonial American soldier in the American Revolution (1775–83), nicknamed the “Swamp Fox” by the British for his elusive tactics. Marion gained his first military experience fighting against the Cherokee Indians in 1759. Then, serving as a member of the South Carolina

Santee-Wateree-Catawba river system: …has been dammed to form Lake Marion, a reservoir 40 miles (64 km) long that is connected by a navigable waterway, Lake Moultrie, and by the Cooper River to Charleston, S.C.

marionette, any of several types of puppet figures manipulated from above by strings or threads attached to a control. In a simple marionette, the strings are attached in nine places: to each leg, hand, shoulder, and ear and at the base of the spine. By adding strings, more sensitive control of

puppetry: Other types: …representation is provided by the jigging puppets, or marionnettes à la planchette, that were, during the 18th and 19th centuries, frequently performed at street corners throughout Europe. These small figures were made to dance, more or less accidentally, by the slight variations in the tension of a thread passing through…

Michael Meschke: …founder and producer of the Marionetteatern (“Marionette Theatre”) in Stockholm.

Boyle’s law, a relation concerning the compression and expansion of a gas at constant temperature. This empirical relation, formulated by the physicist Robert Boyle in 1662, states that the pressure (p) of a given quantity of gas varies inversely with its volume (v) at constant temperature; i.e.,

Edme Mariotte was a French physicist and plant physiologist who, independent of Robert Boyle, discovered the law that states that the volume of a gas varies inversely with its pressure. Although widely known as Boyle’s law, this basic tenet of physics and chemistry is called Mariotte’s law in

mariposa lily, (genus Calochortus), genus of about 40 species of tuliplike perennial plants of the lily family (Liliaceae), native to western North America. Several species are cultivated for their attractive flowers. Mariposa lilies have simple or somewhat branched stems, 15 to 130 cm (0.5 to 4

Yokuts, North American Indians speaking a Penutian language and who historically inhabited the San Joaquin Valley and the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada south of the Fresno River in what is now California, U.S. The Yokuts were traditionally divided into tribelets, perhaps as many as 50,

Native American dance: Northern South America: For example, among the Maipure and Baniva tribes, Mauari, the spirit of evil, is impersonated by a dancer who is fully covered with red and black body paint, a face-covering of puma or jaguar pelt, and a crown of deer antlers. At the initiation of a youth or girl,…

Jacob Maris was a Dutch landscape painter who, with his brothers Matthijs and Willem, formed what has come to be known as the Hague school of painters, influenced by both the 17th-century Dutch masters and the Barbizon school. Maris was the son of an etcher and lithographer. He studied first at the

Jacob Maris was a Dutch landscape painter who, with his brothers Matthijs and Willem, formed what has come to be known as the Hague school of painters, influenced by both the 17th-century Dutch masters and the Barbizon school. Maris was the son of an etcher and lithographer. He studied first at the

patristic literature: The schools of Edessa and Nisibis: …Cyril’s position in his famous letter to Maris (433), the sole survivor (in a Greek translation) of his abundant works; it was one of the Three Chapters anathematized by the second Council of Constantinople (553).

Matthijs Maris was a Dutch painter, brother of Jacob and Willem Maris, noted for his movement away from the Realism of the Hague school toward a more symbolic expression. He was without doubt the most gifted of the brothers. Maris received a royal subsidy, and from 1861 to 1868 he lived and worked

Matthijs Maris was a Dutch painter, brother of Jacob and Willem Maris, noted for his movement away from the Realism of the Hague school toward a more symbolic expression. He was without doubt the most gifted of the brothers. Maris received a royal subsidy, and from 1861 to 1868 he lived and worked

Roger Maris was a professional baseball player whose one-season total of 61 home runs (1961) was the highest recorded in the major leagues until 1998. As this feat was accomplished in a 162-game schedule, baseball commissioner Ford C. Frick decreed that Maris had not broken Babe Ruth’s record of 60

Roger Maris was a professional baseball player whose one-season total of 61 home runs (1961) was the highest recorded in the major leagues until 1998. As this feat was accomplished in a 162-game schedule, baseball commissioner Ford C. Frick decreed that Maris had not broken Babe Ruth’s record of 60

Matthijs Maris was a Dutch painter, brother of Jacob and Willem Maris, noted for his movement away from the Realism of the Hague school toward a more symbolic expression. He was without doubt the most gifted of the brothers. Maris received a royal subsidy, and from 1861 to 1868 he lived and worked

Dor: …a strategic site on the Via Maris, the historic road that ran largely along the Palestine coast. Ruins found at the site date back to the Late Bronze Age (1500–1200 bc), and Dor is mentioned in Egyptian texts of the 11th century. It was an administrative division (Hebrew napha, or…

Mariscal Estigarribia, town, northern Paraguay. It lies in the sparsely settled Chaco Boreal region, on the bank of Mosquitos Creek, which drains into the Paraguay River. Until 1945 it was a military outpost known as López de Filippis; it was renamed to honour the general whose strategy in the

Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester: …Robert’s friend, the Oxford Franciscan Adam de Marisco, as spiritual director. Although regarded as a king’s man, Simon was one of the committee of 12 appointed to handle the acute crisis of 1244 between Henry and his angry barons. He also took part in many important embassies to the French,…

Marīcī, in Mahāyāna Buddhist mythology, the goddess of the dawn. Marīcī (Sanskrit: “Ray of Light”) is usually shown riding on seven pigs and with three heads, one of which is that of a sow. In Tibet she is invoked at sunrise and, though not as popular a goddess as Tārā, has many shrines dedicated

hermandad: The famous Hermandad de las Marismas—a federation of northern Castilian and Basque ports—was concerned with protecting the trade and shipping of its members. It enjoyed wide powers from the end of the 13th century, negotiating directly with the kings of England and France as a diplomatic entity,…

Marisol was an American sculptor of boxlike figurative works combining wood and other materials and often grouped as tableaux. She rose to fame during the 1960s and all but disappeared from art history until the 21st century. Marisol was born in Paris of Venezuelan parents and spent her youth in

Marist Brother, a Roman Catholic congregation of teaching brothers founded near Lyon, Fr., on Jan. 2, 1817, by Marcellin Champagnat for the Christian education of French youth. In 1836 several brothers accompanied the first Marist Fathers to the mission field of the South Pacific islands. Since

Poughkeepsie: …of Vassar College (founded 1861), Marist College (1929), and Dutchess Community College (1957) of the State University of New York system. Locust Grove, the former home of Samuel F.B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, is nearby. The Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Vanderbilt Mansion national historic sites are…

Marist Father, a Roman Catholic religious congregation founded in 1816 in the diocese of Belley, Fr., by Jean-Claude Courveille and Jean-Claude-Marie Colin to undertake all ministerial works—parishes, schools, hospital chaplaincies, and the foreign missions—while stressing the virtues of the Virgin

Jacques Maritain was a Roman Catholic philosopher, respected both for his interpretation of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and for his own Thomist philosophy. Reared a Protestant, Maritain attended the Sorbonne in Paris, where he was attracted by teachers who claimed that the natural sciences

marital exchange, system of mate recruitment in which specific families, groups of families, tribes, or segments of a tribe are designated as those groups from which one must choose a spouse. See exchange marriage;

date rape: Marital rape is a related concept and has been utilized particularly in developing countries to describe unwanted sexual contact by a spouse. It has become a part of efforts toward increasing women’s sexual rights as a means of preventing HIV infection.

Lebanon: Greek and Roman periods: …was expanded into two provinces: Phoenice Prima (Maritima), basically ancient Phoenicia; and Phoenice Secunda (Libanesia), an area extending to Mount Lebanon on the west and deep into the Syrian Desert on the east. Phoenice Secunda included the cities of Emesa (its capital), Heliopolis, Damascus, and Palmyra.

maritime air mass, vast body of air of oceanic origin; also, an air mass (q.v.) that has had a long trajectory over water and has been so modified that it has the characteristics of an air mass of oceanic

Maritime Alps, segment of the Western Alps extending in an arc along the French–Italian border for 120 mi (190 km) between two passes, the Colle di Cadibona (east) and Colle della Maddalena (west). Punta Argentera (10,817 ft [3,297 m]) is the highest point. The mountains are bounded east by the

Tell Atlas, range of the Atlas Mountains in North Africa, extending about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from eastern Morocco through Algeria to Tunisia. In Morocco, from Ceuta east to Melilla (150 miles [240 km]), the Er-Rif mountain range of the Tell Atlas faces the Mediterranean Sea, and there, as along

Native American: Eastern Archaic cultures: …in the extreme east, the Maritime Boreal Archaic (c. 3000 bce). In this eastern area, slate was shaped into points and knives similar to those of the copper implements to the west. Trade between the eastern and western areas has been recognized; in addition, copper implements have been found as…

lighthouse: Buoyage systems: …and Lighthouse Authorities (IALA), the Maritime Buoyage System applies two nearly identical standards to two regions. Region A comprises Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, the Persian Gulf, and most Asian states. Region B includes the Americas, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. In both regions, the buoyage systems divide buoys into…

Chukchi: …chief subgroups, reindeer Chukchi and maritime Chukchi. The reindeer Chukchi inhabit the interior of the easternmost portion of the okrug, the Chukotskiy (Chukchi) Peninsula, and its Siberian hinterland; the maritime Chukchi inhabit the Arctic and Bering coasts. Both speak a Luorawetlan language of the Paleosiberian language group and are linguistically…

marine west coast climate, major climate type of the Köppen classification characterized by equable climates with few extremes of temperature and ample precipitation in all months. It is located poleward of the Mediterranean climate region on the western sides of the continents, between 35° and 60°

maritime continent, in meteorology, the region made up of parts of Southeast Asia and the islands of Indonesia and the Philippines. It is not a true continent but an area made up of thousands of islands of various sizes and numerous shallow bodies of water. It is named for the widespread

Horatio Nelson Lay: …British diplomat who organized the Maritime Customs Bureau for the Chinese government in 1855.

Greenwich: …which is also known as Maritime Greenwich, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997. In 1433 Humphrey Plantagenet, duke of Gloucester, enclosed Greenwich Park and built a watchtower on the north-facing hill above the river. Inigo Jones’s Queen’s House, the first Palladian-style building in England, was commissioned as…

maritime law, the body of legal rules that governs ships and shipping. In English-speaking countries, “admiralty” is sometimes used synonymously, but in a strict sense the term refers to the jurisdiction and procedural law of courts whose origins may be traced to the office of Admiral. Although

maritime law: Maritime liens: Although admiralty actions are frequently brought in personam, against individual or corporate defendants only, the most distinctive feature of admiralty practice is the proceeding in rem, against maritime property, that is, a vessel, a cargo, or “freight,” which in shipping means the compensation…

log, instrument for measuring the speed of a ship through water. The first practical log, developed about 1600, consisted of a pie-shaped log chip with a lead weight on its curved edge that caused it to float upright and resist towing. When the log was tossed overboard, it remained more or less

museum: History museums: …20th-century history museum was the maritime museum. Like other types of museums, it may be housed in historic buildings, as at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, England; in new premises, as in the case of the German Shipping Museum at Bremerhaven; or in a restored waterfront environment, as at…

air mass: Maritime Polar (mP) air masses develop over the polar areas of both the Northern and the Southern hemispheres. They generally contain considerably more moisture than the cP air masses. As they move inland in middle and high latitudes, heavy precipitation may occur when the air is forced…

Maritime Provinces, the Canadian Atlantic Coast and Gulf of St. Lawrence provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. With Newfoundland and Labrador they form the Atlantic Provinces. During the French period much of the region was known as Acadie (Acadia), which was ceded to

land reclamation: Reclamation of coastal areas: Where offshore lands or tidal marshes are covered by shallow water and additional land is critically needed, the land can be reclaimed by construction of dikes roughly parallel to the shoreline, followed by drainage of the area between the dikes and the natural coastline. Where a sediment-laden stream can…

Primorye, kray (territory), Russia, located between the Sea of Japan (East Sea) to the east and northeastern China (formerly Manchuria) to the west. It is the most southerly of the Russian Far Eastern territories. It was formed in 1938 from part of the former Far Eastern Territory, which had

air mass: The maritime Tropical (mT) is the most important moisture-bearing and rain-producing air mass throughout the year. In winter it moves poleward and is cooled by the ground surface. Consequently, it is characterized by fog or low stratus or stratocumulus clouds, with drizzle and poor visibility. A steep lapse…

Maritime Provinces, the Canadian Atlantic Coast and Gulf of St. Lawrence provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. With Newfoundland and Labrador they form the Atlantic Provinces. During the French period much of the region was known as Acadie (Acadia), which was ceded to

Maritime Alps, segment of the Western Alps extending in an arc along the French–Italian border for 120 mi (190 km) between two passes, the Colle di Cadibona (east) and Colle della Maddalena (west). Punta Argentera (10,817 ft [3,297 m]) is the highest point. The mountains are bounded east by the

Maritsa River, river in Bulgaria, rising in the Rila Mountains southeast of Sofia on the north face of Musala Peak. It flows east and southeast across Bulgaria for 170 miles (275 km), forms the Bulgaria–Greece frontier for a distance of 10 miles (16 km), and then becomes the Greece–Turkey frontier

Battle of the Maritsa River, (September 26, 1371), Ottoman Turk victory over Serbian forces that allowed the Turks to extend their control over southern Serbia and Macedonia. After the Ottoman sultan Murad I (reigned 1360–89) advanced into Thrace, conquered Adrianople, and thereby gained control of

Maritime Alps, segment of the Western Alps extending in an arc along the French–Italian border for 120 mi (190 km) between two passes, the Colle di Cadibona (east) and Colle della Maddalena (west). Punta Argentera (10,817 ft [3,297 m]) is the highest point. The mountains are bounded east by the

Salomon Gerhardus Maritz was a general and rebel who was an ardent believer in the Boer nationalist cause in South Africa. He fought against the British in the South African War (Boer War; 1899–1902) and led a rebellion against British rule during World War I. During the Boer War, Maritz carried

Pietermaritzburg: …dead leaders Piet Retief and Gerrit Maritz. The British took control in 1843 and built Fort Napier (now a historical monument). Pietermaritzburg was incorporated in 1854 and was the capital of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) province from 1856 to 1994. It was co-capital with Ulundi of KwaZulu-Natal from 1994 to 1995,…

Salomon Gerhardus Maritz was a general and rebel who was an ardent believer in the Boer nationalist cause in South Africa. He fought against the British in the South African War (Boer War; 1899–1902) and led a rebellion against British rule during World War I. During the Boer War, Maritz carried

Mariupol, city, southeastern Ukraine. It lies along the estuary of the Kalmius and Kalchik rivers, 6 miles (10 km) from the Sea of Azov. The city was founded in 1778 as Pavlovsk, on the site of a former Cossack encampment. It was renamed Mariupol in 1779 to honour Maria Fyodorovna, the second wife

Marcel Paul Pagnol: His next three comedies—Marius (1929), Fanny (1931), and César (1936), known as the Marseille trilogy—deal with the lives of a Marseille fishmonger, Fanny, her lover Marius who goes off to sea, César the father, and his friend Panisse. The salty language of the people and Pagnol’s ability to…

Walter Pater: Marius the Epicurean (1885) is his most substantial work. It is a philosophical romance in which Pater’s ideal of an aesthetic and religious life is scrupulously and elaborately set forth. The setting is Rome in the time of Marcus Aurelius; but this is a thin…

Platonism: Patristic Platonism: …the rhetorician and grammarian Marius Victorinus. A strong and simple Platonic theism and morality, which had a great influence in the Middle Ages, was nobly expressed in the final work of the last great philosopher-statesman of the ancient world, Boethius (c. 470–524). This was the De consolatione philosophiae (Consolation of…

Gaius Marius was a Roman general and politician, consul seven times (107, 104–100, 86 bce), who was the first Roman to illustrate the political support that a successful general could derive from the votes of his old army veterans. Gaius Marius was a strong and brave soldier and a skillful general,

Simon Marius was a German astronomer who named the four largest moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. All four are named after mythological figures with whom Jupiter fell in love. He and Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei both claimed to have discovered them, about 1610, and it is

Pierre Marivaux: …preciousness is still known as marivaudage and reflects the sensitivity and sophistication of the era. Marivaux also made notable advances in realism; his servants are given real feelings, and the social milieu is depicted precisely. Among his 30-odd plays are the satires L’Île des esclaves (1725; “Isle of Slaves”) and…

Pierre Marivaux was a French dramatist, novelist, and journalist whose comedies became, after those of Molière, the most frequently performed in French theatre. His wealthy, aristocratic family moved to Limoges, where his father practiced law, the same profession for which the young Marivaux

Pierre Marivaux was a French dramatist, novelist, and journalist whose comedies became, after those of Molière, the most frequently performed in French theatre. His wealthy, aristocratic family moved to Limoges, where his father practiced law, the same profession for which the young Marivaux

Zambales Mountains: …the bay from Manila is Mount Mariveles (4,659 feet [1,420 m]), which marks the southern termination of the range. The Zambales Mountains are rich in minerals, and their slopes are densely forested.

Mari El, republic within Russia, in the basin of the middle Volga River. Extending north from the left bank of the Volga and drained by its tributaries, the Vetluga, Bolshaya and Malaya Kokshaga, and Ilet, the republic consists of a level, often swampy, plain that rises gently toward the east,

Almería, port city and capital of Almería provincia (province), in the comunidad autónoma (autonomous community) of Andalusia, southern Spain, on the Mediterranean Gulf of Almería. Known to the Romans as Portus Magnus and to the Moors as Al-Marīyah (“Mirror of the Sea”), it was captured by the

South Asian arts: Folk dance: …front of the image of Mariyammai (goddess of pestilence), is to deter her from unleashing an epidemic. Tumbling and leaping, the dancer retains on his head without touching it a pot of uncooked rice surmounted by a tall bamboo frame. People ascribe this feat to the spirit of the deity,…

South Asian arts: Folk dance: …front of the image of Mariyammai (goddess of pestilence), is to deter her from unleashing an epidemic. Tumbling and leaping, the dancer retains on his head without touching it a pot of uncooked rice surmounted by a tall bamboo frame. People ascribe this feat to the spirit of the deity,…

Mariza is a Mozambique-born Portuguese singer who popularized fado, a traditional Portuguese musical genre that combines a narrative vocal style with acoustic guitar accompaniment, to a global audience. Mariza and her family moved to Lisbon when she was age 3. There her parents ran a restaurant

Mariza: On Mariza canta Amália (2020) Mariza covered the songs of Rodrigues.

Syria: Ottoman government, 16th–17th centuries: … defeated the Mamlūks in the Battle of Marj Dābiq and occupied the whole of Syria that year and Egypt the next. Although parts of Syria enjoyed some local autonomy, the area as a whole remained for 400 years an integral section of the Ottoman Empire. It was divided into provinces,…

Marj ʿUyūn, town, southern Lebanon, lying on a fertile plain east of Al-Līṭānī River, at an elevation of 2,500 feet (760 metres) above sea level. Marj ʿUyūn is an agricultural market centre serving a tobacco-, cereal-, grape-, and orange-growing region. The nearby town of Ḥāṣbayyā contains the

Al-Marj, town, northeastern Libya, on Al-Marj plain at the western edge of the Akhḍar Mountains, near the Mediterranean coast. Site of the 6th-century-bc Greek colony of Barce, it was taken by the Arabs in about ad 642. The present town grew around a Turkish fort built in 1842 and now restored. The

Ziyādid Dynasty: …was succeeded by his slave Marjān, who divided the government of the kingdom between two other Mamlūks, the northern provinces falling to Najāḥ, the capital and southern regions coming under the rule of Nafīs. In 1018 the last Ziyādid ruler was murdered by Nafīs. Control of Zabīd finally fell to…

Marj ʿUyūn, town, southern Lebanon, lying on a fertile plain east of Al-Līṭānī River, at an elevation of 2,500 feet (760 metres) above sea level. Marj ʿUyūn is an agricultural market centre serving a tobacco-, cereal-, grape-, and orange-growing region. The nearby town of Ḥāṣbayyā contains the

marjoram, (Origanum majorana), perennial plant of the mint family (Lamiaceae), grown as a culinary herb. Its fresh or dried leaves and flowering tops are used to season many foods, imparting a warm, aromatic, slightly sharp, and bitterish flavour. Marjoram is particularly appreciated for the taste

Marjorie Morningstar, novel by Herman Wouk, published in 1955, about a woman who rebels against the confining middle-class values of her industrious American Jewish family. Her dream of being an actress ends in failure. She ultimately forfeits her illusions and marries a conventional man with whom

Irving Rapper: Later films: …project in some time was Marjorie Morningstar (1958), his adaptation of Herman Wouk’s best-selling novel about a New York girl (Natalie Wood) who dreams of an acting career and, while working at a summer camp in the Catskills, has an affair with the charismatic entertainment director (Gene Kelly) of a…

Tim Robbins: …Lantern (2011), the romance mystery Marjorie Prime (2017), and the legal thriller Dark Waters (2019). His television credits from this period included the HBO series The Brink (2015), a comedy in which he starred as the U.S. secretary of state, and Here and Now (2018), a drama centring on a…

United States: Hurricanes Harvey and Maria and the mass shootings in Las Vegas, Parkland, and Santa Fe: In February 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, 14 students and three staff members were killed when a former student who had been expelled for disciplinary reasons went on a rampage. Some of the students who survived the shooting became outspoken advocates for tighter gun-control…

mark, former monetary unit of Germany. The early history of the term can be traced back at least to the 11th century, when the mark was mentioned in Germany as a unit of weight (approximately eight ounces) most commonly used for gold and silver. As a unit of account, it was employed during the

Australian rules football: Play of the game: …of a set kick, or mark, when a player manages to catch the ball directly from the kick of another player who is not less than 15 metres away. The player who makes the mark is allowed an unhindered kick at the goal from anywhere behind where he marked. The…

Charles Stark Draper: …students designed and built the Mark 14 gyroscopic lead-computing gunsight. Based on a radical new spring mechanism, the gunsight calculated an aircraft’s future position, taking into account gravity, wind, and distance. Overcoming the problems posed by the production of the sight demanded that Sperry hire Draper’s students to oversee the…

Charles Stark Draper: …students designed and built the Mark 14 gyroscopic lead-computing gunsight. Based on a radical new spring mechanism, the gunsight calculated an aircraft’s future position, taking into account gravity, wind, and distance. Overcoming the problems posed by the production of the sight demanded that Sperry hire Draper’s students to oversee the…

Bren machine gun: The Mark 4 model had an overall length of 42.9 inches (109 cm), with a 22.25-inch (56.5-cm) barrel. It had a cyclic rate of fire of 520 rounds per minute, weighed 19 pounds (9 kg), and had an effective range of about 2,000 feet (600 metres).…

Liam Neeson: In 2017 he starred in Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House, about the FBI official known as “Deep Throat,” who acted as an informant to reporters from The Washington Post during the Watergate scandal. The following year Neeson played an insurance salesman who unwittingly becomes part…

Colossus, the first large-scale electronic computer, which went into operation in 1944 at Britain’s wartime code-breaking headquarters at Bletchley Park. During World War II the British intercepted two very different types of encrypted German military transmissions: Enigma, broadcast in Morse code,

Churchill tank: The first Churchill model, the Mark I, was ready by June 1941 and entered large-scale production soon afterward. The Mark I was armed with a two-pounder gun in the turret and a 3-inch (76.2-mm) howitzer (artillery piece) mounted on the hull. Like subsequent Churchill models, the Mark I had good…